Dreaming Of The Free World
by our dancing days
Summary: "Why won't - why won't - why won't you kiss me?" / LilyTeddy.


**Title: **Dreaming Of The Free World

**Characters: **Lily Luna Potter and Teddy Potter.

**Notes: **So, I promised myself three things when I started writing Harry Potter fanfiction: I would never write Drarry, I would never write Lily/Teddy, and I would never write Dramione. Yeah. Expect Dramione soon.

The song lyrics and the title of this piece are from 'Joyride' by The Killers. I'm obsessed with their album Day and Age. I've got a multichap coming up that's dedicated to it. But, without further ago, I present another deliciously angsty one-shot! Enjoy!

* * *

_(Why won't you kiss me?)  
Tell me you want it more.  
Reaching for the light,  
knowing we can't win."  
-The Killers, Joyride_

"Teddy," she chanted. "Teddy, Teddy, Teddy."

"Darling," he drawled, cupping her chin and drawing his face to hers, planting a finger over her eager lips, not a kiss, "The time for talking has passed."

"Oh so eloquent," Lily murmured, drawing circles on his chest, drawing ragged breaths. "Do you ever let that mask drop?"

"And where would be the fun in that?" Teddy asked with a smirk, leaning down and tracing her collarbone with his tongue. She moaned and writhed underneath his talented fingertips, whispering affections and devotions against his skin.

"We need to get up, Ted," Lily moaned, stopping his fingers' path down to her navel. "The wedding, Teddy. The wedding."

That stopped him.

"Of course." He looked up at her and flashed her a grin. "Mustn't leave the blushing bride waiting, must we?"

Lily shook her head and slowly prised herself from her bed, wrapping the covers around her now shivering frame. Teddy simply stood up, having no qualms about his apparent lack of clothes. She rolled her eyes at him, and waltzed off into the adjoined bathroom.

When she returned, Teddy was ready and suited in his traditional Muggle tux, as per insistence of the bride.

As she stepped out, her foot landed on a crack on the floor and the floorboard squeaked.

Teddy turned at the sound, looked down at her bare feet, then trailed his eyes, painfully slowly, up her body. "It's bad luck to-"

"I know, I know," she waved him off, marching towards him and straightening his tie. "Don't you look handsome?"

He nervously tugged at his collar, and straightened his trouser legs. "I feel like I'm playing dress up. A perfect Cinderella, I am." Teddy shook his head, then rearranged his cuffs and slotted his cufflinks into the holes. Then he pulled at his tie once more and sighed.

"Well, you've got the blue tie, I suppose," Lily commented with a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic lilt of her lips.

"Now, you-" Teddy said, picking her up and swinging her round in an arc, "- look perfectly ravishing. You did this all by yourself?" He gestured to her face and she blushed.

"Of course."

"Don't you get all high and mighty with me, Miss Potter," Teddy laughed, patting her on the head. She growled. "I think you look beautiful. Now, do you think I should leave first? It wouldn't do for them all to find out we both stayed here last night." Lily nodded.

"I need a bit more time, anyway," she told him, and he gave a cheery wave and a wink before surreptitiously sliding out of the door.

"Bloody Slytherins," Lily muttered to herself, stepping into her light blue, high heeled shoes and wobbling on them before securing the straps with practised ease. She collapsed on the lime green sofa.

"Why do I get myself into these things?"

She must have been there for about ten minutes before a knock on the door rose her out of her stupor. She tripped over to it and tugged it open without a second glance.

"Al," she greeted without passion.

"That bad, hey?" He joked, but his face fell when he looked her up and down. "Now, is that any state to go to a wedding in?"

Lily glared at him, before wandering into the kitchen and pouring her a glass of Firewhiskey far too large for eleven o'clock in the morning. She offered the bottle to Al after she finished her drink, who waved her away. She took a large gulp instead.

"Nerves?" Al guessed, taking a seat on the sofa she had been slouching on just a minute before. "Butterflies?"

"Butterflies?" Lily laughed without humour. "I feel like I have a Crumple Horned Snorkack in my stomach, not bloody _butterflies." _

"It's natural," he said in a voice laced with sympathy.

"None of this is _natural, _Al," she snapped, putting down the bottle with a thud. "I just think it's too quick. We shouldn't - he shouldn't - no one should rush into things like this!"

"We need to go, Lils."

"I know, I know," Lily said, the same words she had spoken to Teddy, but lacking that humour, that happiness, that spark that came from simply being in the same room as her father's godson. Albus offered his elbow to her, and she took it gratefully. He led the way to the car, traditional Muggle style.

"You look beautiful," he whispered. "No one's going to be looking at her. You're going to be the star of the show."

Her mum looked into the rear-view mirror and, without a word, started the car.

"Right," James said from the front seat. He coughed, cleared his throat and flattened his hair. "Right."

"Oh, get it out, wonder boy," Lily snapped, impatiently tapping her foot and drumming her fingers on the side door. The church came into view.

"Good luck," he said, never a man of many words. He threw her a look, and Lily understood perfectly. She gave her eldest brother a grateful smile before her mum announced that they were there. With a deep breath, Lily stepped out.

The church was full of people, all in hats and a mixture of Muggle and wizarding clothes. They all stopped talking when she walked in, James on one arm, Albus on the other.

As she raised her head, the whispers started again.

"Did you hear-"

"- can't possibly be true, dear Teddy would never-"

"- absolutely devastated-"

"Poor girl, never could-"

"- and never said a word about it!"

Lily took her seat on the left hand side of the church, the third pew, and smiled dutifully as Victoire glided down the aisle, right up to a beaming Teddy. The whispers died down the blushing bride turned her back on the left hand side and smiled.

"Do you, Theodore Remus Lupin, take Victoire Evangeline Weasley to-"

"I do."

"_I do."_

"_You do? You love me? Really Teddy?" He held her hand and kissed it sweetly, caressing the knuckles with his thumb. He didn't kiss her mouth._

"_Forever, Lily. Always."_

"I do."

And so Lily Luna Potter ran. She ran out of that church, away from that life. She knew the ending; of course she did. Teddy and Victoire were perfect for each other. Who would want a freckled, bespectacled girl nine years your junior when you could have ice cold beauty queen _Victoire Weasley?_

Lily had turned to the last page, and cast it from her mind when she was only half way through the second chapter.

"_He's a manipulative, emotionless bastard, Jamie, and we both know it." _

"_And yet you still love him."_

"_Well - we all make mistakes. And I think it's time to move on." _

_("Why won't - why won't - why won't you kiss me?")_

She turned away from the church, drove to the flat that used to be hers, collected the things she used to share with Teddy, looked at pictures of the man she used to care about, and left.

And Lily Luna was happy.


End file.
